Flat bed truck trailers conventionally employ removable side panels thereon which are mounted and retained, or held in position, at the sides and front of the trailer by alternate dividing and backing stakes. Dividing stakes have a T-member extending inboard therefrom, adjacent dividing stakes along the length of the trailer receiving between them the panels with the ends thereof engaged by the T-members. Both the dividing and backing stakes, in the outboard portions thereof, typically are formed in hollow triangular shape. The lower ends of the dividing and backing stakes are removably received in slots formed in the trailer outboard floor portions. Typically, there are some twenty stakes on each side of a flat bed trailer, spaced two feet apart. The panels themselves are four feet long, so the pattern is dividing stake-backing stake-dividing stake, beginning and ending with dividing stakes or their equivalent at the ends.
A tarpaulin is conventionally employed to cover at least certain kinds of loads. Conventionally, side clips have been provided, bolted or otherwise fixedly attached to the upper portions of the outside faces of the panels, for two purposes. A minor such purpose is to limit the downward extension of the tarpaulin side edges as the tarpaulin is deployed over the load. Additionally, and more important, such clips have been employed on at least one side of the truck so that, when the trailer is being loaded or unloaded or the cargo worked in some way, the entire tarpaulin may be laid over to one side, clearing the roof area. It should be noted, additionally, that arcuate beams are conventionally employed over the load anchored (socketed) in the dividing stakes or backing stakes or both.
It is most preferable that the tarp or load cover not have to be fully removed from the trailer.
One conventional difficulty with the prior art clips is (primarily) that the presence on one side face of certain panels (or all side panels) makes those panels essentially unstowable. That is, they cannot be laid flat one upon the other. Additionally, such fixed clips, if damaged, can not be readily replaced. Yet further, such clips are not versatile in that the owner or driver cannot select precisely where such clips are to be used or applied without employing an entire panel. Finally, the clips must be spaced free of the dividing and backing or retainer stakes.